Staffers
see too many relatives dieSeveral Leader staffers lost their relatives during
the holidays, two of them killed in car wrecks, while another
relative died suddenly from a heart attack. As we were talking
about the unusually high number of sudden deaths in The Leader
family, word came that the 93-year-old mother of bluesman Charlie
Musselwhite was strangled in Memphis during a home break-in. Musselwhite's
father died a few days later in a nursing home.[FULL
TEXT]

Big
Jack Johnson: Great BluesmanBig Jack Johnson has been playing at Red's Lounge
in Clarksdale, Miss., for the last couple of weekends, and if
you hurry down there, you might still catch the great bluesman
tonight as he rocks the juke joint down with his powerful guitar
playing and soulful singing that's as deep and satisfying as anything
you'll hear today anywhere in the Delta.[FULL
TEXT]

How
bodies come home from Iraq(Relatives of soldiers killed in Iraq are often
surprised to find out that their loved ones are returned home
on commercial airplanes. This column first appeared here on May
26, 2004). A couple of weeks ago, passengers on an airplane flying
into Little Rock heard a pilot telling them that an officer was
escorting home a soldier returning from Iraq. [FULL
TEXT]

Eyewitness
to attack on Pearl Harbor(This column about the late McLyle Zumwalt first
appeared here on Dec. 9, 1989 and is reprinted to mark the 64th
anniversary of the bombing of Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941.) Most
people think of retired Col. McLyle Zumwalt as one of the organizers
of Pathfinders, which trains the developmentally and physically
disabled in Jacksonville. [FULL
TEXT]

How
you can make big bucks at homeDoes Arkansas need two people to head the state's
emergency management agency? Right now we have Wayne Ruthven,
the outgoing head of the Arkansas Department of Emergency Management,
still collecting $6,600 a month while he supposedly works out
of his home till the end of the year, and John Brackin, the interim
chief, making about the same amount of money. [FULL
TEXT]

Administration
runs into trap door overseasEvery administration has its defining moment that
symbolizes its successes or failures  from John Kennedy's
"Ich bien ein Berliner" to Ronald Reagan's "Mr.
Gorbachev, tear down this wall," from Richard Nixon's "I'm
not a crook" to Bill Clinton's "I did not have sex with
that woman," from George H.W. Bush throwing up in Japan to
George W. visiting Beijing more than a decade later and getting
stuck in front of a door that would not open. (Maybe it was the
first Bush's immortal words, "Read my lips, no new taxes,"
that got him defeated.) [FULL
TEXT]

JANUARY
25, 2006

Meth
abusers are putting a strain on area emergency rooms, including
Rebsamen Medical Center in Jacksonville.

Drug
abuse puts drain on local hospitals IN SHORT:
While the number of meth-amphetamine busts dropped by almost 50
percent last year in Arkansas, meth-related hospital admissions
continue to climb.[FULL
TEXT]

Lab
seizures decline in 2005 IN SHORT:
Detectives with the White County Sheriff's Department say they see
changing trends in the production of methamphetamine, but not necessarily
a reduction in use.[FULL
TEXT]

Schools
get building funds IN SHORT:Pulaski
County Special School District officials, told previously that the
district's fiscal-distress designation disqualified it from transitional
facilities repair funds, learned Monday that the state had conditionally
approved reimbursements totaling about $264,000. [FULL
TEXT]

Hopefuls
confident they can ease woes IN SHORT:The
first two candidates interviewing with the school board for the
Pulaski County Special School District's superintendent position
feel they have the experience to help solve the district's many
woes. [FULL
TEXT]

Gen.
Self praises deployed airmen IN SHORT:Brig.
Gen. Kip Self, commander of the 314th Airlift Wing at Little Rock
Air Force Base, praised 100 airmen due home Sunday from a four-month
deployment to Iraq and 500 airmen deploying over the next several
weeks.[FULL
TEXT]

Cabot
names Citizen of Year IN SHORT:
Cabot's new Citizen of the Year, named Friday during the annual
Chamber of Commerce banquet, is a 43-year-old native who says he
takes a lot of pride in making sure the city where he grew up is
growing as it should.[FULL
TEXT]

NFL
official a big hit at chamber banquet IN SHORT:
As outgoing Jacksonville Chamber of Commerce chairman Mark Perry
passed the gavel to John Farrell, chamber members and guests in
the fully-packed community center Tuesday night enjoyed hearing
from keynote speaker Walt Coleman.[FULL
TEXT]

Beyond
Therapy IN SHORT:It's
not unusual to see horses in Ward, but this spring some very special
horses will be working in a covered arena just off Peyton Road.
The horses are part of Beyond Boundaries Equine Assisted Therapy
Center, a non-profit organization using horses in therapy for children
with disabilities. [FULL
TEXT]

Jacksonville
guard Airic Hughes drives baseline for two of his 14 points last
Friday during the Red Devils' 62-51 win over West Memphis.

JHS dominates Blue Devils IN SHORT:
The Jacksonville Red Devils took care of West Memphis last Friday
night with surprising ease, beating the Blue Devils 62-51 at home
to move to 3-2 in conference play and into a tie for third place
in the brutally tough AAAAA-East conference. The game was not without
its moments of excitement, but that drama was short-lived.[FULL
TEXT]

Cabot's
quickness too much for FC girls IN SHORT:The
Cabot girls were just too quick and had too much depth for Forrest
City's Lady Mustangs to overcome Friday night at Mustang Arena.
Cabot improved to 15-3 for the year and 5-0 in the AAAAA-East Conference
by taking a 72-55 win over the Lady Mustangs, who fall to 9-6 overall
and 2-3 in the conference. [FULL
TEXT]

A
work of Panther art IN SHORT:Donna
Williams, an art teacher at Cabot Middle School North, recently
completed a month-long painting project depicting the school district's
emblem and mascot on the walls of the board of education room in
the Administration Building, 602 North Lincoln. [FULL
TEXT]

Bill Halter's
awful idea A good rule is to beware the politician
who promises big, bold new ideas for it is apt to be no more than
a promise. Follow the man or woman who actually offers them. [FULL
TEXT]

Five-year feud
appears over Mike Abdin, who passed away in 2000,
was a successful Jacksonville businessman who left his mark on
his community, having long served as an alderman and police commissioner.
[FULL
TEXT]

Huckabee's plea
for help We here in the first decade of the
21st century have been privy to a sudden revolution in the federal
system, made evident again the past two weeks in the catastrophe
that is the government's new Medicare drug program. [FULL
TEXT]

Wage earners still
lagging If you work for wages in the United
States, chances are that the past six years have not been stellar
ones, and if you happen to toil in Arkansas they have been darker
still. [FULL
TEXT]

David vs. Goliath It was David vs. Goliath in the contest
for speaker of the state House of Representatives this week, but
this time the big guys beat the little guys. [FULL
TEXT]